Turn with me, if you will, please,
to 2 Corinthians, chapter 5. 2 Corinthians, chapter 5. In verse 11, the apostle says,
knowing therefore the terror, the terror of the Lord. We persuade man. What an awesome, awesome thing
to consider. The terror of the Lord. Some of you are soon going to
face the terror of the Lord. I want, by God's grace, by His
power, to persuade you. right now, to persuade you to
cease from your rebellion, to raise up the white flag of surrender
in your heart to the rule and dominion of the Lord Jesus Christ. Look in verse 20. Now then, we are ambassadors
for Christ. As though God did beseech you
by us, we pray you in Christ's death, be you reconciled to God. I'm here as God's messenger,
speaking to you in God's stead, bearing God's message. And yet,
I would not have you to imagine for a moment that I am just a
messenger. A messenger doesn't give a hoot
about the message, the one who sent it, or the one who gets
it. Messenger just delivers the message. I'm more than a messenger. I stand before you as God's ambassador. And as God is my witness, I testify
to you nothing in the world is more important to me than God
who sent me. the message he sent me to deliver
and you to whom I'm sent to deliver it. Nothing. My prayer, my heart's desire
to God for you is that you might be saved. I recognize many of
you sitting here this morning. Set here under the wrath of God
and you don't know it. You live upon the very edge of
eternity, totally unaware of it. You live continually defying
God, defying his righteousness, defying his truth, defying his
wisdom, defying his justice, defying his son, despising his
grace, despising his goodness, despising his mercy. Over and
over again, you've been warned from this pulpit by mom, by dad,
by brother, sister, husband, wife. You've been warned over
and over and over again. God in his providence has warned
you over and over and over again that soon, very soon, you're
going to meet God in judgment. And how will it be for you in
that day? Now, knowing the terror of the
Lord, we persuade man. I've come to
you this morning with some persuasions, and if you're the least bit interested
in your soul, I would encourage you to just hold your Bibles
open right here in 2 Corinthians chapter 5, and I'm going to give
them to you. I have nothing fancy, nothing
flowery, nothing profound or deep to talk to you about, but
I've got something very, very serious to talk to you about.
I want to persuade you to be reconciled to God. And as I persuade
you, I'm going to instruct you, and I trust minister to the comfort
and edification of God's saints as well. Now the basis of my
appeal is first the immortality of your soul. Look in verses
1 through 9. You and I are not animals. We did not evolve from some worm
or germ or an ape. We are creatures made in the
image and likeness of God by the power and wisdom of God into
whose bodies the Lord God has breathed immortality so that
God breathed into man's nostrils and man is a living soul. Our Lord Jesus Christ speaks
with great wisdom. When he says, what shall it profit
a man if he shall gain the whole world and lose his own soul? Now you've been pursuing it hot
and heavy. You've been trying your best
to get everything you can. You get all the gusto you can
out of life, and all the glory you can out of life, and all
the joy you can out of life, and all the riches you can out
of life, and all the property you can out of life. But when
all's said and done, when all's said and done, It'll profit you nothing to gain
the whole world, lose your own soul. I'm looking right here at Sean.
I'm telling you, my friend, nothing is relevant by comparison. You understand that? Nothing. Nothing is relevant. Nothing
is significant. Nothing is important by comparison. What will it profit you if you
gain the whole world and lose your own soul? You see, we're going to spend
eternity somewhere. I don't have to prove that to
you, you know it. God has stamped that on your
heart and conscience so vividly that you can't possibly deny
it. We're going to spend eternity somewhere, either in the everlasting
bliss of life and glory in heaven with Christ, or in the everlasting
terror of the Lord's wrath in death and hell, whatever that
is. Everything in this world is just
temporary. We got that fixed here pretty
good. But Merle, we hadn't come close to getting it. Everything here is just temporary. Just a puff of air. Nothing else. Just temporary. We look not at
things which are seen, Paul said in chapter 4 verse 18, but the
things which are unseen. For the things which are seen,
listen now, the things which are seen are temporal. Everything. Look at that. Dearest human being I've ever
known. And that blessed relationship, just temporary, gonna be gone
soon, soon. And everything else, the property,
the houses, the possessions, the name, the reputation, everything
else is just a, just vanity, just vanity. Everything, Bob
Pontzer, you can look at with your eyes, touch with your hands,
or feel with your heart right now in this world is temporary. Everything. Everything. Try as you may, you can't hold
on to anything or anyone for very long. We are rapidly, rapidly moving
through this temporary world, however, to a world that Paul
describes as unseen, where everything is eternal. Everything. I don't have any idea, really,
what the terror of hell is. I don't have any idea really
what the second death is. I don't have any idea really
what everlasting judgment is. I don't have any idea really
what the fires of hell are. Don't make any pretense about
that. But whatever it is, it's forever. And blessed be God whatever the
blessedness of life and eternal glory is in Christ. That's forever. Now there are many things that
are taught in these first nine verses concerning the immortality
of our souls, but let me just show you three things that every
believer recognizes. Three things that are true of
every believer. We live as God's children in
this world in the expected hope of immortality. There is a sense in which we
exercise proper prudence and care, exercising proper responsibility
to care for our lives and our bodies and all things here temporal.
God's given us that responsibility, He's given us that sensibility
about things. And yet at the same time, Believers are a carefree
people and in a sense a careless people in that we live not for
time and not for the things of time but for eternity and for
the things of eternity. We live not for mortality but
for immortality. I don't know how to say this
and not be misunderstood. I'm just going to risk it. This Society in which we live
this craze with health and, you know, running and jogging and
I'm not suggesting you fellas quit. Don't misunderstand me. This nutty obsession with diet
and health and staying in good physical shape and getting all
we can of every day that we live suggests too much attachment
for now. Bobby, we live in the prospect
of eternity. Look at this, 2 Corinthians 5
verse 1. We know, we know that if, and
that word if is a real small word, if. It's not if, it's when. We know that as soon as our earthly
house of this tabernacle is dissolved, This body is dissolving. This is just one slight indication
of it. This body is decaying. This body
is just a tent, just a tabernacle, and it must soon be taken down.
And as soon as this body, this earthly tabernacle is dissolved,
we have a building of God and a house not made with hands,
eternal in the heavens. For in this we grow. Do you? Earnestly desiring to be clothed
upon with our house which is from heathen. Now that doesn't
mean we grow and hoping to get out of our troubles here. Everybody
wants that. Everybody wants to get out of
difficulty and trouble. That's not it. But we grow desiring
to be free from sin. and desiring to be clothed upon
with immortality, light, and righteousness in perfection. Read on. If so be that being
clothed, we shall not be found naked. Paul seems to be telling
us that there is an intermediate state between death and the resurrection,
an intermediate body, so that he's telling us as soon as we
leave these earthly tabernacles, we enter into a blessed heavenly
estate, not floating around as spirits on clouds, but rather
in a body, we stand before God in glory. For we that are in
this tabernacle, this body of flesh, this clay tent, do grow
being burdened. Burden not that we should be
unclothed. Not just to be escaping our present
circumstances and our present difficulties. Believers are not
men and women who run from trouble. Believers are men and women who
live in the midst of trouble, anticipating glory and seek the
glory of God in it. But clothed upon that mortality
might be swaddled up of life. Paul said, I know whom I believed,
and I am persuaded that he's able to keep that which I've
committed to him against that day. He said, for me to live
is Christ to die is gain. Secondly, the apostle tells us
in verses five through eight that our faith in Christ There's
such a faith that gives us confidence and assurance with regard to
eternity and immortality. This is not something we're speculating
about. This is not something that we're doing some guesswork
about. Now, he that hath wrought for
us the selfsame thing is God. That is, it's God who gave us
this hope, who has also given us the earnest of the spirit.
The Spirit, the Holy Spirit dwelling within us, who's given us a new
nature, a heart of life and faith in Christ, is this earnest, the
down payment, the foretaste of that blessed inheritance that
awaits us. Therefore, we are always confident,
believers, always confident, knowing that whilst we're at
home in the body, we're absent from the Lord. For we walk by
faith, not by sight. All of God's saints do. Walk
by faith, not by sight. All of God's saints are men and
women who have been given this blessed confidence with regard
to eternity and immortality based upon the righteousness and obedience
and blood of Jesus Christ our Lord. We walk by faith. We are confident, I say, and
willing, rather, to be absent from the body and to be present
with the Lord. And yet, thirdly, This faith
and confidence never causes a believer to be presumptuous. Hold your
hands here and turn to chapter 3 of Philippians. Now listen to what Paul says
in verse 9, 2 Corinthians 5, 9. Wherefore we labor Since we
have this confidence, since we have this blessed hope of immortality,
since we believe that we shall at last see God face to face
and be accepted of him because of Christ our substitute, wherefore
we labor, we strive, we strive hard with all our soul that whether
present or absent, we may be accepted of him. Now what does
that mean? Does that mean we, We strive
and labor hoping by our works to make ourselves accepted of
God? Oh no. Does that mean we strive hoping
by our obedience, by our right conduct, by our right spirit,
by our right attitude to make ourselves accepted with God?
No, no, no, no. but rather we constantly labor
and strive to put off every confidence in the flesh, every notion of
self-righteousness, every notion of legality, every notion of
personal worth before God, so that we cling to Jesus Christ
alone. I was talking with, I believe
it was Paul Harries, yesterday or the day before, about this
matter of Legality and works religion, it clings to us. You ever walk unwittingly into
a large spider web and try to brush it off? You can't get it
off. It's everywhere. Just everywhere. And that's the way works religion
is to human flesh. And we must labor, strive earnestly
to enter in at the straight gate and to walk in the narrow way
that we may find ourselves at last accepted of God, trusting
Jesus Christ alone. Look at what Paul says in Philippians
chapter 3, verse 8. Yea, doubtless, and I count all
things but loss. for the excellency of the knowledge
of Christ Jesus my Lord, for whom I suffered the loss of all
things and do count them but dung, that I may win Christ. He says, I count my pedigree,
my righteousness, my Pharisaism, my religion, my religious works,
I count it all just so much manure. that I may win Christ, and be
found in him, not having mine own righteousness, which is of
the law, but that which is through the faith of Christ, the righteousness
which is of God by faith. I'm gonna tell you something.
Your sin will never send you to hell. Won't do it. Your sin
will drive you to the Savior. Your righteousness will carry
you to hell, for your righteousness is nothing but sin. Paul said,
I want to be found in Christ, not having my own righteousness,
but his. Read on. That I may know him, and the power of his resurrection,
and the fellowship of his sufferings, being made conformable unto his
death, if by any means I might attain unto the resurrection
of the dead. Not as though I had already attained, either were
already perfect, but I follow after that I may apprehend that
for which also I am apprehended of Christ Jesus. Brethren, I
count not myself to have apprehended. I haven't arrived yet. I haven't
gotten it all yet. But this one thing I do, forgetting
yesterday, forgetting those things which are behind, and reaching
forth unto those things which are before, I press toward the
mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus. I keep pressing after him. Paul
said, follow peace with all men and holiness without which no
man shall see the Lord. That means you pursue with all
your heart and mind Jesus Christ and righteousness and holiness,
true righteousness and true holiness in him and in him alone. For
if you can miss him, you surely will. If it's possible for you
to miss him, you'll surely miss him. Paul says we labor that
whether present or absent, we may be accepted of him. You see,
we recognize, I do, I hope you do, that there are multitudes who
as soon as they die, perish forever under the wrath of God. But while they lived, they vainly
presumed everything was well between them and God. Some of you are in that shape. You sit where you are, just very
comfortable, very secure, very peaceful. You've had a little
religious experience. You've got a little religious
knowledge. You think you've got everything
sewed up and everything's all right. Oh, don't be so foolish. If you die without Christ, you
can die forever. I don't care how you were raised.
I don't care how devoted you've been. I don't care how religious
you've been. I don't care how much you read
your Bible. I don't care how much you think you know. If you
die without Christ, you die forever. You'll be cast into hell to suffer
the second death. The wrath of God will be your
everlasting portion. So I appeal to you, because of
the immortality of your soul, be reconciled to God. And I make the second appeal. I appeal to you upon the basis
of the certainty and strictness of divine judgment. Look at verse
10. For we must all appear before
the judgment seat of Christ. If you can't ignore me, I'm sure
you will. I pray God He won't let you We are every one going to meet
God in judgment. We're going to meet God in judgment. That every one of us may receive the things done in
his body, according to that he hath done,
whether it be good or bad. See, God's gonna judge us according
to our works. And that's exactly what he's
gonna do, Ron. He's gonna open the books. He's gonna judge us
according to our works. And if he finds, if he finds
so much as one spot of sin, one mark of iniquity, One flaw of
transgression written against us according to our works will
be damned forever. Now preacher, that means there's
no hope for anybody. Oh no. That means there's no hope for
you. For you who are without Christ.
If your only hope before God is you, And damned you must be
forever. But for those who are in Christ,
and I'll show you this in just a minute, you hang on. For those
who are in Christ, everything's new. And we will be judged according
to our works. Our Lord Jesus Christ, James,
was judged for our sins. And our sins were his sins, they
became his. And he was dealt with on the
grounds of justice according to our sins, which were his sins.
And thus he suffered the terror of God's wrath to the full satisfaction
of justice as our substitute. And we stand before God and shall hear God our Father
say, well done. Thou good and faithful
servant. How can that be? There's nothing
in me but sin. Ah, but my substitute has done
everything for me. And Bob, his works are our works.
Knowing therefore the terror of the Lord, we persuade men. This is what I'm saying. You
sinners, seek his grace, whose wrath you cannot bear. Fly to
the shelter of his cross and find salvation there. So shall
the curse remove by which the Savior bled, and the last awful
day shall pour God's blessings on your head. As you care for
your soul, flee away to Christ. like the manslayer in the Old
Testament was bidden, flee to the city of refuge. You flee
away to the Lord Jesus Christ, and if you flee into Jesus Christ
our refuge, then the justice of God can never touch you, for
the justice of God fell on your substitute in surety. And yet
I know that judgment Wrath, the terror of the Lord,
will never persuade you to repent. Won't happen. It's not the terror
of the Lord, but the goodness of God that leads you to repentance. I don't try to scare folks into
the arms of Christ, I can't do that. Years ago when the religious
folks in town here got together and had a rally over at the high
school and showed that movie called The Burning Hell. Tried
to scare the hell out of all the kids in town. Got everybody
to make professions of faith and some of them got upset with
me. Why don't you have anything to
do with that? Because you can't scare folks into the kingdom
of God. You can scare them into religion but not into the kingdom
of God. Your parents are dealing with your children and they get
scared of hell and get scared of dying. They don't want to
make a profession of faith, do their souls a favor and wait.
Just wait. Deal with them on the grounds
of grace and mercy. So thirdly, I make my appeal
to you on the basis of the love of God in Christ the Lord. But we are made manifest, verse
11, under God. And I trust also are made manifest
in your conscience. And this is what the apostles
say. And I speak for myself, not for
him or another. I claim your attention and I
claim your hearing, not by anything I do, but by
the gospel I preach. I deserve to be heard by you because of what I preach. I deserve your hearing because
of the gospel of God's free grace. The reason I am so insistent
that we have nothing to disturb services, nothing to keep me
from hearing the gospel, because it deserves a hearing. What you
were teaching this morning, Lindsay, deserves a hearing. Now you know
the message I'm declaring to you is the truth. There's no
question in your mind about it. I'm convinced every one of you
sitting here understands the message of God's grace is the
truth, that what I'm telling you is the truth, and thus I
deserve a hearing from you. My motive? Yes, look at verse
13. For whether we be beside ourselves,
it is to God, or whether we be sober, it is for your cause.
My motive is the glory of God and your soul's eternal good. Mark, I have no other interest. I have no other interest in this
business of preaching. I have no other interest in the
labor of my life. I'm not interested in fame or
fortune. I honestly am not interested.
I'm not interested in accumulating anything for myself. Honestly,
I'm not. I am concerned for God's glory
and your immortal soul. And I believe that's obvious
to you. So the basis of my appeal to
you, the foundation of my message, the strength of the call I issue
to you, is the love of God revealed in the crucified Savior. Look
at verse 14. For the love of Christ constraineth
us. This is what motivates me. I've
experienced the love of God in Christ. Because we thus judge that if
one died for all, then we're all dead. Now, this is what that
means. As did Brandon Hart and Don Ford.
If Christ died for that young man and this old man, if he died
in our place, we died when he died. That's exactly what it
means. Here's the love of God in Christ. When Jesus Christ
died at Calvary as a sinner's substitute, those for whom he
died there died to the law and justice of God and for them judgment
is over. God reveals his love to us in
Christ, herein is love. And it is that which constrains
us. graciously, effectually, irresistibly
constrains us to trust Him, serve Him, honor Him, obey Him, seek
His glory, love one another, and love Him. We're constrained
not by terror, not by fear, not by law, not by promise of reward
or fear of punishment, but rather our lives are motivated, governed,
inspired, and constrained because we are made to know His love. Why am I here? By the constraint of His love.
Why'd you give what you gave? The constraint of His love. Plan to meet you here again tonight?
Around the Lord's table? Only if His love constrains you.
That's all. If it doesn't, no, you won't
get any threats, you won't get any, uh, You won't get any terrifying
phone calls, you won't get any constraint of any other kind.
A preacher, don't you know if you chase folks down and told
them they're gonna have something bad happen to them if they didn't
do right, or maybe if you promised them some rewards in heaven if
they did better, then folks would do better. I know, lost folks
would. Lost folks would. And preachers
convince them by the dozens that they're saved when they're lost,
by constraining them through terror and promise of reward,
fear of punishment. Ah, but believers in all their
lives are constrained by the love of Christ. Substitutionary
nature of his sacrifice constrains us as well. The Son of God died
in our place, died in the place of guilty, hell-deserving sinners,
that we who are sinners deserving God's wrath in hell are now made
to go free, free from all sin, free from all curse, free from
all condemnation, free forever before God. And the sanctifying
efficacy of his sacrifice also constrains us. Look at verse
50. and that he died for all. Did Jesus Christ give his life
for me? Did he? Then he did it that they
which live should not henceforth live unto themselves but unto
him which died for them and rose again. Now this is what I'm calling
for. I'm calling for you to surrender
the entirety of your being to the rule and dominion of him
who loved us and gave himself for us. That's what I'm asking. I'm not
asking whether or not you want to go to heaven when you die.
Everybody does. I'm not asking if you want to
go to hell or not. Nobody does. I'm not asking if you want to
get your life straightened out so that you don't cause yourself
endless misery from now on. Everybody sooner or later wants
to get their life straightened out. That's not the issue. I'm calling
for you, every one of you. Everyone, every last one of you,
I'm addressing you as if nobody in this building knows God from
a gorilla. I'm addressing you just presuming
that nobody here, including the preacher, knows anything about
the grace of God. I want you to understand, this
business of faith is nothing more and nothing less than the
surrender of my being to the rule of Jesus Christ. And that's
it. A preacher that shuts me out.
It just might. It just might. But that's what
faith is. Doesn't seem to me that anything
else makes any sense, does it you? Rex, if he died for me, it just makes sense. He died
for me that I shouldn't live to myself, but to him. You're
not your own. You've been bought with a price.
So glorify God in your body and in your spirits which are God's. And then it is the saving revelation
of His grace that actually finally constrains us to obedience and
faith. He says in verse 16, wherefore
henceforth know we no man after the flesh. Yea though we have
known Christ after the flesh. Now wait a minute, how did Paul
know Christ after the flesh? He knew Christ after the flesh
in exactly the same way Paul went until I knew you when I
got the first letter from you. I knew you existed, knew you
out there in California somewhere, and knew some things about your
life, but not much. I'd never seen you, I'd never
shook your hand, I'd never met you to my knowledge. I just knew
you were there. And Paul, as a Pharisee, Saul
of Tarsus, he knew Christ after the flesh. He knew him on the
basis of human reason, human experience, human knowledge.
He knew him as a historical person, as a real person who once lived.
But he didn't know him after the Spirit. Didn't know him by
divine revelation. Do you? Yet now henceforth know we Him
no more. We don't know Him as a mere historic
figure. We don't know Him merely as a man who once lived and died
and rose again. We don't know Him merely as the
Son of God who came here in human flesh, lived on this earth in
righteousness, died, was buried, and rose again, and we accept
the facts. Oh no! This is life eternal, that they
might know the only true God and Jesus Christ whom thou hast
sent. I make this appeal to you as
well, upon the basis of this fact, and that is the blessedness
of God's salvation. Look at verse 17. Therefore,
if any man be in Christ, Therefore, refers back to this
saving knowledge of Christ. Since Christ died in the place
of his people, therefore, therefore, if any man be in Christ, anybody,
by divine election, by the spirits called by faith in him, if right
now, for the first time ever, right where you sit, you flee
away to Christ, if any man be in Christ, he's a in your creature. Brother Gary
Shepard and I were discussing this one night late this week.
One of the benefits of these conferences, we get to sit around
and sharpen one another's minds a little bit. Theologians use
the term regeneration, but you know that's not a biblical term
at all. Regeneration is used talking about the earth, when
the earth is dissolved in fire and the Lord Jesus will regenerate
the earth. In the regeneration, he talks
about the time when the earth shall be regenerated. But talking
about the new birth, regeneration is not an accurate term at all.
For it implies that that which was dead is regenerated and made
alive again. That's not the case at all. The
old man is never regenerated. That which is born of flesh is
flesh. That which is born of spirit
is spirit. So when we talk about the new
birth, we're not talking about the old man being created new.
No, sir. We're talking about something
new altogether being created in you. We're talking about God
dropping down His grace from heaven into your soul, making
you partakers of the divine nature. so that you're given a new heart,
a new will, a new nature. You're made to be yourself, one
with Jesus Christ in life. Old things are passed away. When I was 15, 16 years old,
I'd made such a wreck of my life. I wanted desperately to go somewhere
where I could start new, where nobody knew the name Don Fortner,
nobody ever heard of him. So that whenever folks saw me,
they wouldn't be afraid and I wouldn't be embarrassed. Whenever they
saw me coming, they wouldn't be afraid of the influence I
might have on them or their family, and I wouldn't be embarrassed
by what they knew. And shortly thereafter, I started
all over. Old things are passed away. Now
no man can ever forget on this earth what I've been, what I've
done. But there sits a man in glory
who is God my Savior, by whose blood Everything I've ever been
and done is gone. All our sins are gone in Christ. Gone! So that He was manifested
to take away our sins and in Him is no sin. He put our sins
away. Blessed is the man to whom the Lord will not impute
sin. But He's not only put them away,
He so thoroughly put them away that he will never, ever, ever,
ever, for any reason, at any time, charge us with any sin. And we'll never, never, never,
never suffer any consequence for any sin. Never. Behold, all things have become new. That
man, that woman who believes on Christ, if you right now come
to Christ, if right now you believe on the Son of God, these things
He's done for you. He's given you a new nature.
In sanctification, he's given you the very spirit and nature
of Jesus Christ, his son. He's given you a new record.
In justification, he declares that you're righteous before
God. He's given you a new covenant, a covenant of pure, free grace. And he's given you a new name.
Behold, what manner of love the Father hath bestowed on us. that such things as we are should
be called the sons of God. I'm calling for you then to be
reconciled to God because of the immortality of your soul,
the certainty and strictness of divine judgment, the love
of God in Christ, the blessedness of God's salvation.
And look at verses 18 and 19. I make this appeal to you upon
the basis of Christ's finished work. Here the Holy Spirit shows us
several things. Let me give them to you quickly. First, all things
are of God. Now that can be carried just
as far as you want to carry it, but in this context, it's talking
about salvation. The whole thing is God's doing,
all of it. Don't you pay any attention to
anybody who ever suggests to you that any aspect of this thing
of salvation depends on you or is determined by you. Salvation
is God's work. Well, preacher, we believe that
election and justification and redemption is God's work. We
believe that the new birth is God's work, but sanctification
and perseverance and preservation, now we've got to contribute to
that. Sound like works to me. Smells like works to me and it
smells rotten. Oh no, your sanctification and
preservation and perseverance, Jim, just as much God's work
as is the work of redemption and regeneration. It's all together
God's doing. So then it is not of him that
willeth, nor of him that runneth, but of God that showeth mercy.
All things are of God who hath reconciled us to himself by Jesus
Christ, and hath given to us the ministry of reconciliation.
That is to say that God was in Christ, reconciling the world
unto himself, not imputing their trespasses unto them, and hath
committed to us the word of reconciliation. First, salvation's God's work.
Secondly, God was in Christ. That one who is our redeemer,
our substitute and our surety, is himself God in human flesh. Third, God was in Christ, reconciling
the world unto himself. Now don't allow heretics to confuse
you by throwing that word world at you. Obviously, God did not
reconcile everyone in the world to himself. Not everybody's reconciled
to him. What does it mean then? It means that God Almighty reconciled
his elect scattered through all the world to himself. And that
simply means that the work of reconciliation, insofar as the
law and justice of God is concerned, was finished at Calvary. Now
the great glorious fact revealed in this glorious redemption accomplished
by Christ is just this. God will not impute sin to his
chosen. All right, now look at this.
In verses 20 and 21, I urge you, I plead with you, I beseech you
in Christ's name to be reconciled to God because of the message
of grace revealed in the gospel. There's no passage of scripture
more glorious than this. No words to be found in human
literature to compare with these. Read them and weep over your
sins that demanded such a sacrifice. Read them, rejoice and give thanks
to God who provides such a sacrifice. Here's the call of grace, now
then, now then, right now. We're ambassadors for Christ. as though God did beseech you
by us. I'm speaking to you, but every
man and woman in this place who knows God speaks through my voice. We're ambassadors for Christ,
and we beseech you, we pray you in Christ's name, be you reconciled
to God. That's the call. He said, oh
preacher, how can I be reconciled to God? How can I ever be accepted
of God? Here's the basis of his grace. Four. You come to Christ, be reconciled
to God, looking to Christ, for he The Lord God Almighty hath made
him, his darling son, to be sinned by God. He who knew no sin was made to
be sinned for us. And here's the reason why. That
we who are nothing but sin might be made the righteousness of
God in him. There's one more thing in this
passage of scripture that I must declare to you. And that is the urgency of faith. Look at the next verse. Verses 1 and 2 of chapter 6 really
ought to be right at the end of chapter 5. We then, as workers together
with God, beseech you also that you receive
not the grace of God in vain. Now listen to me just a minute.
Listen to me. You've had the privilege this
hour that few human beings walking
on this planet have had in a lifetime. You've had the privilege of hearing
the gospel of the free grace of God in Christ. You may take that to be a light
thing. God doesn't. Now I urge you, don't you play
with this. Don't you receive the grace of
God in vain. For he says, I've heard thee
in an accepted time. In the day of salvation have
I succored thee, helped thee. But when is that? Behold, now is the accepted time. Behold, today is the day of salvation. Pastor, what does that mean?
That means if God calls you now, you can come now. And that means if you don't come
right now, you may never come. You may never be allowed to come. Time will come when you'll seek
him, and he will not be found. You'll call on him, and he'll
laugh at you. You say, preacher, God wouldn't
do that. Read Proverbs chapter 1 and see. Go ask Esau and see. Go ask Ephraim and see. There
are lots of folks in hell today who thought they could have God
at their beck and call whenever they wanted Him. I'm telling
you, today is the day of salvation. God help you now to come to Christ. Be reconciled to God by faith
in His dear Son. Amen. Lindsay, you listen to
him, please.